“We set out with about forty friends to the next appointment. The people being gathered, after singing and prayer I began to preach, and God laid to his helping hand. Many cried aloud for mercy. One young man being powerfully wrought upon retired up stairs, and then thumped about on the floor, so that Mr. Boehm was afraid that he would be injured in body. ‘To be sure,’ said he, ‘I never saw God work in this way before.’ I told him there was no danger, he was in the hands of a merciful God. In a few minutes after, in attempting to come down stairs, he fell from the top to the bottom, and hallooed aloud, ‘The devil is in the chamber! the devil is in the chamber!’ which greatly alarmed all the people. This brought a great damp over my spirits, for I thought if I had raised the devil I might as well go home again. However, after a little space, I bid some of the good people go up stairs and see if the devil was there. Several went up to see what the matter was, and there they found a man rolling, groaning, and crying to God for mercy. They returned and told us how the matter stood. When I dismissed the people many wept around me; some said they had found peace, some were truly awakened, and others deeply convicted.”[3] Such is Mr. Abbott’s description of the scenes that occurred in the old house where my grandfather used to live. I heard him, and beheld the strange scenes he relates. It was more like pentecost than anything else I ever saw. The influence of that meeting was tremendous, and for years it made a great deal of talk in my father’s neighborhood. RICHARD WEBSTER was the second Methodist preacher raised up in America. He joined at the second Conference, 1774, with Philip Gatch, when there were only twenty Methodist preachers in America and two thousand members. He was appointed to Baltimore Circuit with the excellent George Shadford and Edward Dromgoole. He used to preach in my father’s barn long before the Chapel was built, and I listened to him with great delight. He was a fine specimen of the early Methodist ministers. He was a perfect Christian gentleman, a son of consolation; the Gospel flowed sweetly from his lips. Mr. Webster was the first Methodist minister that Freeborn Garrettson heard, and he greatly admired him. I heard him preach in after years, as the shadows of the evening were gathering around him. SYLVESTER HUTCHINSON was a thundering preacher, who alarmed the careless ones. In 1790 he preached at my father’s, and a glorious revival followed. RICHARD WHATCOAT was the Elder in 1790,[4] and I heard him preach. He was then stationed in Philadelphia, and the only Methodist preacher in that city. His text was, “There shall be a handful of corn in the earth on the top of the mountains,” etc. I well remember the preacher and his illustrations, and the mighty effect produced by the sermon, although it is now over seventy years ago.