PREFACE. THE Volume now before the reader has been written in compliance with the request of the late Wesleyan Conference, expressed in the following resolution:-"That our President is requested to prepare and publish, with as little delay as possible, a brief but comprehensive work, on the subject of the Centenary; including, with succinct notices of the origin, progress, and present state of Wesleyan Methodism, and of the leading facts in the life and history of the revered founder of our societies, such remarks as may assist our friends in the devout improvement of the occasion." It has been the writer's intention to present an honest statement of facts, without any attempt at embellishment. Though he has been compelled to execute his task in a comparatively short period, and in the midst of numerous and urgent engagements, yet he indulges a hope that his work will in some degree meet the views of the venerable body of Ministers who have called for its publication, and that it will be found not altogether devoid of interest to the general reader. Its leading design is to stir up the pure minds of the Wesleyan societies, wherever situated, by calling their attention to the great things which the Lord has done for them and for their fathers, that under a grateful sense of his goodness they may give unto him the glory which is due unto his name, and may transmit to their children, in unimpaired efficiency, that system of evangelical doctrine and of godly order upon which the divine blessing has so signally rested during the last hundred years. January 1, 1839. |