A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Volume II

We have hitherto traced the progress of Methodism in this country, from its small beginning in 1766 to the close of the first General Conference in 1792. Though it had difficulties, both internal and external, to contend with, it won its way through every opposition, maintaining the purity of its character, and exerting its hallowing influence on society, in the meantime molding itself into a more compact form and firmer consistency, until, we have seen, it was organized in One Supreme judicatory to which its destinies, under God, were committed. I shall now proceed to narrate, as accurately as possible, its subsequent progress, both in its general councils and in its various ramifications over this extended continent.