sixty-three years-his devotion to the Church was characterized by untiring zeal; while, in the various charges he filled, the most extraordinary revivals of religion were, under God, the result of his labors. During the early years of his ministry, while connected with the Baltimore Conference, "he labored chiefly in the valley and mountain sections of Virginia. Many pleasing reminiscences of his great success in winning souls to Christ still remain among the inhabitants of those regions. The men and women who were young two generations ago speak with raptures of his untiring zeal, his almost exhaustless energy, his overwhelming ministrations. They ranked him among the ablest and most successful men of his times."* In 1807, he was regularly transferred to the Western Conference, and stationed on the Lexington Circuit, while his family resided on a farm in Jefferson county, which he had purchased. At the General Conference of 1808, the Rev. William McKendree, the Presiding Elder on the Cumberland District, was elected to the Episcopal office. On the District Mr. Ward was his successor. At this time the Cumberland District comprised twelve separate pastoral charges, embracing within its territorial limits the whole of Southern Kentucky, a portion of Middle Tennessee, the territories of Illinois and Missouri, and the inhabited settlements of Indiana. To accomplish his work, *General Minutes M. E. Church, Vol, VI., p. 13. "he had, in some places, to carry his provisions with him, and lie out in the woods or prairies at night.” * He remained on this District but one year, during which he astonished the people by his zeal; while great displays of Divine power were, everywhere within its bounds, seen and felt under his ministrations. In the years 1809 and 1810, we find him on the Kentucky District, the successor of the illustrious William Burke. This District-embracing the country around Maysville and Flemingsburg-extended into the central portion of the State, including the settlements along the Licking River; the blue-grass lands of Fayette and Mercer counties-embracing Frankfort, Shelbyville, and Louisville, and throwing its lengthening lines across Green River, and to the banks of the Cumberlandwas the field to be occupied by James Ward. During the two years of his supervision of the Kentucky District, the same success that had everywhere previously crowned his labors was still to be seen. The following year he was appointed to the Shelby Circuit; and then for two years he presided over the Salt River District; when, with impaired health, and a growing family to support and to educate, he asked for and obtained a location; in which relation he continued until 1828. In this sphere, however, he had no ease. His zeal for the cause of Christ found no abatement whatever. "Working diligently with his hands, *Letter from the Rev. J. G. Ward. he embraced every opportunity of preaching. He spent no idle Sabbaths when it was possible for him to get to church. He kept up regular appointments, and was always willing to assist the traveling preachers at camp-meetings and two-days' meetings, and spent much of his time from home."* Wher ever he attended meetings, he bore an active part in the exercises-whether in the pulpit, making his appeals to sinners, or in the altar, impressing upon the penitent the "exceeding great and precious promises" of the word of God. In 1828, he was reädmitted into the Kentucky Conference; but, after traveling three years, he became superannuated, which relation he sustained until 1833; and from that period until 1840, he traveled circuits, yet was unable to do more than meet his regular appointments, from which he was seldom absent. In 1840, his name disappears from the effective list, to be placed on it no more. From that time until his death he sustained a superannuated relation. In the controversy which arose between the two divisions of the Methodist Church, in the General Conference of 1844, he took his position with the Northern branch; and in 1848, he asked admittance into the Baltimore Conference, and "the Conference, without controversy, by a unanimous vote, directed that his name should be recorded upon the list of superannuated members." *Letter from the Rev. J. G. Ward. "On the 13th of April, 1855, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and the sixty-third of his itinerant ministry, he departed this life, near Floydsburg, Kentucky. His death seems to have been less the result of any particular disease than the gradual wearing away of life's weary wheels. The heavenly inheritance was bright before him to the last moment. His sun went down without a cloud. His spirit, without a struggle, returned to his God."* As a preacher, Mr. Ward was not what the world would call eloquent. There was nothing rhetorical in his gestures, nor did he appeal to the sympathetic passions of the people. His preaching was scriptural; and this, with the fact that he was a man of prayer, always trusting in God, was the basis of his great success. He was a member of the General Conferences of 1804 and 1808. He was also elected to the General Conference of 1812, but through modesty declined.† This year introduces the name of William Burke into the history of Methodism in Kentucky. Among the early Methodist preachers of the West, William Burke stood preëminently high. With the fortunes of the struggling cause he became identified the previous year, when he joined the Conference, and was appointed to Green Circuit, in East Tennessee. In 1793, in charge of the Danville Circuit, with Page and Sewell for his colleagues, he entered the ranks in Kentucky, and from that period until 1812 he spent the most of his time in this extensive *General Minutes M. E. Church, Vol. VI., pp. 13, 14. field. Occasionally the demands of the Church elsewhere require his services, and he is found proclaiming a Redeemer's love on Guilford Circuit, North Carolina, and on Holston, in the State of Virginia. Two years of this time he traveled the Cumberland Circuit, lying chiefly in Middle Tennessee. In 1804 and 1805, his field of labor is the Ohio District, embracing the extensive territory along the waters of the Muskingum, the Little Kanawha, Hockhocking, Scioto, Miami, and Guyandotte Rivers. The remainder of the time, embracing thirteen years, he devoted his energy and strength to Kentucky. Prompted by motives of the sublimest character-the love of Christ and the salvation of the people-he enters upon his work with the certainty of success. The declension in piety, to which allusion has already been made, had reached the Danville Circuit. Mr. Burke says: "We received our appointments at the close of the Conference, and separated in love and harmony. I was this year appointed to Danville Circuit, in charge, and John Page as helper. We entered upon our work with a determination to use our best endeavors to promote the Redeemer's kingdom. The circuit was in but a poor condition. Discipline had been very much neglected, and numbers had their names on the class-papers who had not met their class for months. We applied ourselves to the discharge of our duty, and enforced the Discipline, and, during the course of the summer, disposed of upward of one hundred. We had some few additions, |