Perhaps, indeed, it may be said, that the nearer we get to the origin of denominations, the more catholic we shall often find them. Methodism at first was not a creed, but rather a large revival of religion in the world, which asked no man, whether minister or layman, a solitary question concerning his _belief_. Age may tend to contract sects, as coal contracts iron and water. The denominational paths of the world are apt to open somewhat largely; nor in their ending would we say that they exactly fulfil the descriptions of a tourist, concerning our western roads, which, he said, opened widely and promisingly under the umbrage of magnificent trees, but gradually grew narrower and narrower in the pursuit, till they at last terminated in a squirrel track, and run up a tree. Opening the pages of 1818, we find Mr. B. breasting the wintry storms and treading the snows of January, preaching to his flock at Pittsford, administering the communion at Leroy, holding forth at Lima and at Mendon, and attending to the funeral obsequies of departed friends. He speaks of the funeral he attended on the 19th, of the wife of Capt. Dewey, at Mendon, as to him a solemn and a joyful day. In the Christian Herald, January 24, he said: "It is now glorious times in different parts of this country. In Mendon, Lima, Groveland, Bloomfield, Leroy, Hartland, Covington, Cato, Camillus, and Livonia, the Lord's work is now spreading. I intend in a few months to give the names of the ministers and churches in this part of New York. Within one year I have baptized about 100 in this region of the country. A few of us in these parts are about to adopt the mode of ordaining elders in each church to 'rule well,' not merely to see to the 'widows' or temporal cares of the church, but to have an oversight of the flock, without being called to labor in _word_ and doctrine. See 1 Timothy 9: 17; Acts 15: 6; Titus 1: 5; Acts 14: 23. I have learned that it is a small part of a minister's duty to preach and baptize."