It will be seen that Methodism has inaugurated, really, all the great moral reforms of the last hundred and fifty years. The great missionary movement, which has sent evangelistic agencies into all the earth, had little or no life when Methodism was born. Since that time, what hath God wrought! CHAPTER XV. WESLEY AND AMERICAN METHODISM PRIOR TO 1766. THE real advent of Methodism into America is a subject demanding special consideration. It has been generally supposed that its first introduction was in 1766 by Barbara Heck and Philip Embury, who inaugurated religious services at that time in the city of New York. But it has always seemed to us that Methodism was introduced much earlier. There had been no less than five members of the "Holy Club"--the Oxford Methodists' fraternity--preaching in America prior to 1766, namely, John and Charles Wesley, Benjamin Ingham, Charles Delamot, and George Whitefield. Whatever may be said of the four former, it is certain that George Whitefield was here, from 1740, preaching as a flaming Methodist evangelist from Maine to Georgia. These men all accepted Wesley as their leader, and looked to him for counsel. Mr. Whitefield's first visit to America was undertaken with the express purpose of assisting Wesley in his great work. But Wesley had left the field before he arrived. George Whitefield was an Oxford Methodist, a member of the Holy Club, and possessed an undying love for Wesley. He was known in Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England as a Methodist, and until, in after years, he drew away from Wesley for a time, on some doctrinal question, he was in fullest accord with him. Whatever he did in America during his first and second visits was done as a Methodist. It must be confessed that Whitefield did a marvelous work in all parts of the country years prior to 1766. He was known in New England as a Methodist, and the first Methodist chapel ever erected in this land was built in Boston, the land of the Pilgrims. Charles Wesley stopped in Boston several weeks, on his way from Georgia to England, and preached several times in Dr. Cutler's Church on Salem Street, known as Christ Church, and also in King's Chapel. He also was known as an Oxford Methodist. When Whitefield first entered New England he had not separated from Wesley. He had been to England since his first visit, and had been led, like the Wesleys, into the experience of salvation. He at once entered into their labors, and had inaugurated outdoor preaching at Bristol. It was not until he had visited New England a second, perhaps a third, time, and had adopted the views of Calvin as held by New England divines, that he drew away for a time from Wesley. In Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, and in New York God wrought wonders by this flaming Methodist evangelist.