The introduction of Methodism into Lancaster was providential. The translation of the Methodist Discipline into German had something to do with it. In 1807 I went to Lancaster to read the proof-sheets of this translation at the printer’s. After I had read them, and was about to return home, it commenced raining hard, and I put up at a public house where I had often stopped. The Lutherans were there in great numbers to draw a lottery, the proceeds of which were to finish a church steeple.[14] A crowd had come together to see who was fortunate enough to obtain a prize. Feeling no interest in the result of the drawing, and annoyed by the noise and confusion of the people, I left the public house and took a walk through Lancaster to while away the time. While going along the street I met with a woman who had been a member of the Methodist Church in Germantown. She told me there was a man by the name of Philip Benedict in Lancaster who had been awakened at a camp-meeting, and he and his wife were seeking the Lord, and she advised me to call and see them, telling me where they lived. I went to their house, pointed them to Jesus, and prayed with them. As I was about leaving they said, “O that we could have Methodist preaching in Lancaster!” I told them they could have it. So I left an appointment to preach at his house. It became a permanent preaching place. In a little while I formed a class of six members: Philip Benedict and his wife, and four others. This was the nucleus of the society which remained permanent. I am thankful that I had the honor of planting the tree of Methodism in that city. Behold how many links there are in this singular chain; how many small causes to bring about such large results! CHAPTER XVII. DOCTOR ROMER AND THE GERMAN METHODIST DISCIPLINE. There are but few who know that the Methodist Discipline was translated into German fifty-seven years ago, and I am the only man living who knows all about it: by whom it was translated, who brought it through the press, etc. In Asbury’s Journal we find, under date of Friday, August 30, 1810, “At Middletown, Penn. We here broke bread with Dr. Romer, a German, who has translated our Discipline for his countrymen.” This brief record is all. There is not a historian of our Church that names the fact so full of historic interest. Mr. Asbury ever felt the deepest interest in the welfare of the Germans. When I commenced traveling with him in 1803, and went as far as Berlin, on the top of the Alleghany Mountains, the reader will remember he sent me back to Dauphin to preach to the Germans. The Rev. John Lednum in his recent work, “Rise of Methodism in America,” p. 241, has fallen into an error. In speaking of Peter Albright,[15] and the Albright Methodists, he says: “Dr. Romer of Middletown translated the Discipline into German for their use.” This is a great mistake.