suffer Satan to drive the Indians" on his company, "he will teach their hands to war, and their fingers to fight and conquer.' The session of the Conference was a delightful one. The deliberations were marked with candor"openly speaking their minds to each other”—and it closed "under the melting, praying, praising power of God." There was but little business transacted of which we have any record. The only entry made is, that "trustees were appointed for the school, and sundry regulations made relative thereto." They also "read the Form of Discipline through, section by section, in Conference." The day after Conference he preached from Habakkuk iii. 2, and some of the "people were moved in an extraordinary manner;" and the next day he arrives "at Bethel, and holds a meeting with the newly elected trustees." Bishop Asbury deeply laments the decay of moral power, and makes a touching allusion to "the want of religion in most houses." During his brief stay in Kentucky-entering the State on the 10th of April, and leaving it on the 10th of May-he attended two quarterly meetings; one of which was held at Humphries's Chapel, and the other at Clark's Station. Almost every day he preached to listening hundreds, urging the Church to awake from its lethargy, and sinners to turn to God. He traverses nearly the entire of Central and South-eastern Kentucky-exposing himself to danger, preaching the gospel, and administering the sacraments-until, utterly exhausted by his immense labors, he says: "I cannot stand quarterly meetings every day: none need desire to be an American Bishop on our plan, for the ease, honor, or interest that attends the office." But amid all this exertion and labor, worn out with traveling and preaching, he exclaims: "Yet, blessed be God, I live continually in his presence, and Christ is all in all to my soul!" During his stay in Kentucky, he had the pleasure of visiting the Rev. Francis Clark, the pioneer preacher of the Methodist Church, who, in a local relation, had formed the first class, previous to the arrival of Messrs. Haw and Ogden in the District. Jacob Lurton, James Ward, William Burke, John Ball, and Gabriel Woodfield this year receive appointments in Kentucky. Messrs. Lurton, Ward, Burke, and Ball were present at the Conference. There were five circuits in the State, and the Appointments were: Francis Poythress, Presiding Elder. Salt River— Jacob Lurton, James Ward; Danville-William Burke, John Page, John Sewell; Lexington-John Ball, Gabriel Woodfield; Hinkstone-Richard Bird; Limestone-Benjamin Northcutt. Jacob Lurton had entered the connection in 1786, and traveled that year on the West Jersey Circuit. In 1787, he labored on the Berkeley Circuit, in the State of Virginia; the following year he was appointed to the Redstone Circuit, in Pennsylvania. In 1789, he returns to Virginia, and travels the Clarksburg Circuit; the subsequent year the Kanawha. He spends the years 1791 and 1792 in Maryland, on the Baltimore and Harford Circuits; and in 1793, he was transferred to Kentucky, and appointed to the Salt River Circuit-the most difficult to travel and the most laborious of any in the State. In the various appointments on which Mr. Lurton had labored and suffered, he had been the instrument of good. Whether in West Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, or in the wilderness of the West, he was zealous in the promotion of the kingdom of the Redeemer. His last year in the itinerant ministry was 1794. His circuit was the Cumberland, but the latter six months of the year were spent on the Salt River Circuit. On both of these circuits he was useful and beloved. In the Cumberland Circuit, under his labors, there was an interesting revival of religion, which extended into Kentucky. He carried the tidings of salvation into Logan county-at that time remarkable for its vice-and was the first to proclaim the story of the cross to the people there. In the humble cabin of Mr. Cartwright—the father of the Rev. Peter Cartwright-in that county, he "preached with great power," while the "congregation were melted to tears." Soon, however, his health failed him, and in the retirement of a local sphere he spent the remainder of his days. He married a Miss Tooley, on Beargrass Creek, in Jefferson county, and for many years resided on Floyd's Fork of Salt River-where, still faithful to the the ear of rs, ch gs e m e Re d spent the first fifteen years of h connection with the Baltimore Co ing chiefly, during this period, in ments of Western Virginia. The four years previous to hi tucky-which occurred in 1807the Greenbrier District, where greatly blessed. During the en early ministry, he was one of t well as one of the most laborio preachers. Persons who knew h of his life, could scarcely form an his pulpit abilities when in the f He was born and brought up county, Maryland. In early chil an orphan. His mother inclined England, and endeavored to trai to the stiff forms of that Comm ever, was brought in contact w preachers, and through their inst seventeenth year of his age, was awakened, converted, and brought into the Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother was strenuously opposed to the step he had taken, but the opposition was soon overcome by his zeal for religion and the sanctity of his life. Impressed with the conviction that he ought to devote himself to the work of the ministry, difficulties of an embarrassing character seemed to hedge up his way. The care of the family had been left to him as a sacred legacy by his father, previous to his death; his mother strenuously opposed his entering the itinerancy; and the interest and the cares of home demanded his attention. Amid these obstacles he earnestly sought the path of duty. "The love of Christ constrained him." The victory was gained; and, not disregarding his filial obligations, but making ample provision for his mother and the remainder of the family, he entered upon the "hazardous enterprise of Methodist itinerancy."* In 1789, he was licensed to preach; shortly after which "he was called out by the Rev. Richard Whatcoat, then Presiding Elder, to fill a vacancy on Dover Circuit, Delaware."† It was not, however, until 1792, that his name appears on the Conference roll. From the very hour of his entrance into the Conference until his death-covering a period of * Letter from his son, the Rev. Joseph G. Ward, of the Little Rock Conference. †General Minutes M. E. Church, Vol. VI., |