Oldal 38 [38]
OCR
After the “bee,” the project of building a church at that place, was abandoned. Although, in early times, there was less ostentation and display pertaining to church matters, than in the present day, yet there are not lacking many who sincerely believe that genuine piety was quite as plentiful then, as it is in 1878. Itinerant ministers were joyfully welcomed to every rude cabin ; and it was only necessary to send word that services would be held at any given point, to bring together the people for miles around. CHAPTER IX. EARLY CHURCHES. METHODISTS. In early days a Methodist Missionary was quite a curiosity, the preaching of the itinerant Missionaries attracting congregations drawn from miles around. For many years, service was held in the log cabins and under the shade of the spreading forest ; thus were the foundations of the church laid, which through successive generations has kept pace with the civilization and progress of the country. The Methodist Church planted its first seeds in America, in the city of New York, three years after Canada became a British Province. . When the Revolution broke out, among the Loyalists driven from that country were many of the Methodist faith, who subsequently settled in Canada. In both Upper and Lower Canada, the first Methodist preachers were connected with the Britisharmy. Tuffey,a Commissary of the 44th, held services at Quebec, where his regiment was disbanded in 1783. George Neal, the Niagara District in 1786. In 1788, Lyons and James McCarthy entered the Province, laboring in the vicinity of the Bay of Quinte. Many members of the Church of England held at that time that persons not loyal to the Established Church, must of necessity be disloyal to the Crown. The consequence was that McCarthy suffered arrest as a vagabond, and was thrown into Kingston gaol. At his trial he was sentenced to banishment. Such was the reception given to a missionary labouring for the conversion of the people. The first regular preacher of the Methodist Church in Canada was William Losee, who preached several sermons in Leeds and Grenville in 1790. The names of Embury and Heck are linked in was through the intercession of Barbara Heck, wife of Paul Heck, that David and Philip Embury were persuaded to commence preaching. David Embury held services in a ship loft, William street, New York, in 1766; was driven out of that State during the Revolution, for his loyalty to the king, and settled at Hay Bay, in Fredericksburgh. The ashes of Philip Embury were urned in 1822, by the Methodists of the United States. The same relentless persecution drove Paul and Barbara Heck to Canada, they finding a resting place in the Township of Augusta. The Hecks were of Irish origin, Barbara having been converted in that country, at the early age of eight years. She was a woman of holy life, fired with a burning zeal for thecause. Her remains were interred at the "old Blue Church Cemetery,” between Prescott and Maitland. Beside the blue waters of the St. Lawrence she sleeps the sleep of death, her grave visited from year to year by the followers of Wesley, from distant States and Provinces, all ready to drop a reverential tear on the sod, green as her memory in the hearts of her countrymen, Carroll gives the following account of the Hecks: “Paul and Barbara Heck resided, for a time, at Camden, where they were the founders of another new Methodist cause. They lived in Lower Canada ten years, coming to Augusta in 1785, settling on Lot No. 4, 3rd Concession, in the neighborhood of Big Creek, where a class was immediately gathered, in which was embraced John Lawrence, who married P. Embury’s widow, with Samuel Embury, Philip’s son, for leader. Barbara died in 1804, her funeral sermon being preached by Colonel David Breakenridge, who was magistrate, militia colonel, and local elder, all in one, and who performed more baptisms in that region than all the other local preachers put together. Breakenridge was a U. E. Loyalist, and an ardent Tory. Possessing a fair education and a large public experience, he occupied a foremost position. As a preacher, he was caustic and severe; he would advise those who were so strenuous about the quantity of water in baptism, to make thorough work of it, and have themselves ‘put to soak over night,’ and those that carried their divinity in their pocket, ‘to put a lock and key on it, lest they should lose it.’” The first Methodist church built in America was erected on John Street, New York. Among the original subscribers appears the name of Paul Heck, for three pounds five shillings, In 1791, the first Methodist church in Canada was projected, the spot selected being Hay Bay, on the farm of Paul Huff. Darius Dunham, at one time a popular preacher in this district, was taken on trial, in 1788, and removed to Canada in 1792, .In consequence of his faithfulness in reproving sinners, he acquired the name of “Scolding Dunham,”
