IRELAND AND AMERICA.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE IRISH EVANGELIST.
...In almost every place the Irish cause met great
kindness and sympathy from many of those Churches
especially from those of the Presbyterian and
Independents; but the Methodist Episcopal Church must
be particularly dear to an old Irish Methodist Preacher.
This cannot be thought surprising, when it is considered
that besides our common origin, our mutual relation to
Methodism, and their liberal responses to our claims,
that there are tens of thousands of those who were
once useful members of society in Ireland that now
enrich the Churches of the West. Many touching scenes
served to remind me of this fact, in the places which
I visited. I mention one only of these. On the first
Sunday morning that I preached in Philadelphia, there
was unusual excitement in the congregation; many
evidently laboured under deep emotion. On my
descending from the pulpit, the matter was soon
explained. Brother Bowen, the good minister in
charge, met me, and said, "You may tell whereever you
go that you have preached this morning to thirteen
hundred Irish in this congregation." I was greatly
affected by the greetings which awaited me from
many of my old friends....
Queenstown. William Reilly.
