Methodism in Ireland and in America
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 HENDERSONClose