METHODISM IN IRELAND AND IN AMERICA.
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
20th July, 1863.
Enclosed please find one gold dollar in advance for
the ensuing twelve numbers of the "Irish Evangelist".
The numbers for the past twelve months reached me with
tolerable punctuality, and the contents of each became
increasingly interesting and edifying.
Religious newspapers, such as the Canadian Christian
Guardian, the Nova Scotia Provincial Wesleyan, and the
Irish Evangelist, all tending to promote the one great
and glorious object, scriptural holiness, are valuable
acquisitions in a Wesleyan family, not only in training
the young in the faith of the Bible, but in
affording useful information to those of more mature
age and understanding.
In this province every Wesleyan family is mostly
supplied with our own sheet, the Provincial Wesleyan.
It is published in Halifax under the direction and
control of the Conference, and in two days afterwards
it reaches the dwellings of our people on the remotest
Circuits in the province. Under the management of the
present efficient editor, the Rev. J. M'Murray, a native
of Ireland, it sustains no diminution of taste or talent
in the selections and editorials; while its extended
circulation, promoted by the united influence and agency
of all superintendents of the Circuits, proves its
adaptation to the genius of Methodism and the advancement
of the Redeemer's kingdom.
Early recollections of Methodism in the land of my
fathers often flit across my mind in panoramic form.
Such men as the Rev. Henry Deery, Joseph Armstrong,
Robert Crozier, John M'Arthur, Charles M'Cord, Matthew
Stewart, James Oliffe, and several others who travelled
the Ballinamallard (now Irvinestown) Circuit during the
years of my minority, pass on in the vision of imagination
until the picture resembles life itself, reminding me of
their zeal for God, the deep interest they took in the
spiritual welfare of their people, and their godly
councils to the young and rising generation.
...If you have never been in North America in the
summer season you cannot form any adequate conception
of the intensity of the heat. While penning these
lines, and with three windows raised, the perspiration
is exuding from every pore. One who knows the climate
in each hemisphere might naturally sigh to inhale the
balmy air of his own "Green Isle of the Ocean". Content,
however, to submit to the extremes of heat and cold in
my adopted country, my prayer to God is, "Let me stand
in my lot at the end of the days".
Respectfully and truly yours, &c., &c.,
ANDREW HENDERSON
