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To use his own language: "It was now no longer a burdensome business to do the will of God; my disposition was to hate sin; my delight was in God's service, and I experienced great happiness when engaged in communion with God." Truly, he had passed from death unto life. He had been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the marvelous light and liberty of the people of God. He was consciously saved. He had been made a new creature in Christ Jesus; old things passed away, behold, all things have become new. Or, to use the expressive phrase of Bishop John Seybert, "he was converted deep into eternal life." We emphasize this at this point, because Jacob Albright's conversion is the key to the origin, history, and providential genius of the church which resulted from his earnest and effectual labors. This conversion was the result of profound conviction, deep contrition of heart, thoroughly Scriptural repentance, and living faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It was the foundation of Albright's unmistakable call to a peculiar mission, and the prime spiritual element of his qualification for the work.

Soon after his conversion Mr. Albright declared his adherence to the Methodists. Through the labors of Benjamin Abbott, Martin Boehm, and Bishop Asbury, a Methodist class had been formed, in the immediate neighborhood. Albright's nearest neighbor, Isaac Davis, was the class-leader. Albright, being a man of method and order, had no sympathy with ecclesiastical independency, which was at that time advocated by certain of his contemporaries, but found in the Methodist Church the order which he admired, and also congenial spiritual fellowship. He studied the doctrine and discipline of that church, and was greatly pleased with it. In order to enjoy the full benefit of the public worship of God with them, he acquired 1 R. Yeakel's "History of the Evangelical Association."

a good knowledge of the English language, and took an active part in all their godly exercises.

As time passed and he matured in the grace of God, he became more and more impressed with the neglected condition of the Germans. Contemplation upon the sad state of affairs led to prayer. "Full of solicitude," he says, "I frequently cast myself upon my knees and pleaded with hot tears that God might lead my German brethren to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and might send them faithful leaders, who should preach to them the gospel in power, awaken lifeless professors of religion, and lead them to a life of true godliness, so that they might be made partakers of the peace of God and of the inheritance of the saints in light. Thus I prayed daily. While I thus communed with God, a sudden light appeared in my inmost soul; I heard, as it were, at the same time, my own heart propound the searching question: Is it mere accident that has caused the miserable condition of thine erring brethren so deeply to affect thee? Was it an accident that thy heart, particularly thy heart, has been thus overwhelmed with sympathy for thy brethren? Is not this rather the hand of Him whose wisdom guides not only the destiny of the individual but of nations? What if his infinite love had chosen thee as his instrument to lead thy brethren to the way of life and to the reception of his saving mercy?' This thought at first startled, alarmed me. But as I considered it my heart felt easier. I gained confidence that God would answer my prayer. I heard, so to speak, the command of God: 'Go, work in my vineyard, proclaim my gospel in its purity with emphasis and power to my people, and trust to my fatherly love that those who hear and believe shall partake of my grace.'

This was Albright's first call. But, clear as it was, he

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shrank from the task. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. The very clearness of the call made him tremble. And when he thought of the magnitude of the work, the difficulties and opposition that must be met and overcome, he felt himself insufficient. Especially did his lack of gifts and talents and of education appear to render him utterly insufficient. Like Moses, he pleaded earnestly that God might intrust this work to one more worthy and more efficient. Albright was no fanatic, much less was he an egotist. Nothing was further from his mind than unholy ambition or sordid motives. He hesitated long. But God laid the hand of affliction upon him. He suffered great bodily pain. His mind was ill at ease. A great weight oppressed his heart. Fear and trembling seized him, for through it all duty became still clearer, and more imperative its voice. At length he yielded. In a final surrender he exclaimed, "Lord, here am I, send me."

Notwithstanding Albright's self-depreciation, he was indeed a chosen vessel, the man for the hour. His very lack of specific literary and theological training gave him access to the common people. He was a man of energy

and tact, and proved to be a capable preacher and a born organizer. Of German ancestry but of American birth, he was peculiarly fitted to begin a religious movement among German-Americans. Withal he was a man of sound judgment, penetrative intellect, sympathetic nature, and consecrated boldness and independence of thought. Soundly converted, deeply pious, conspicuously humble, a man of God, a man of and for the people. Conscientious and thoroughly disciplined by grace, he went not upon his own charges, but followed the urgent call of God, oppressed always by the feeling that "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." The principal

Albright began to preach in 1796.

theater of his early operations was in the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, and in the States of Maryland and Virginia, in the latter State especially, along the Shenandoah Valley. He was persecuted almost as soon as he began his labors, but he had crossed the Rubicon. Nothing daunted, he toiled on, and God gave him souls. Up to the year 1800 no step had anywhere been taken looking toward an organization, or the establishment of any congregations. Albright himself had no such object in view. He simply followed the voice of God, to preach the gospel to his erring brethren and to lead those wandering sheep to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls.

His labors as an itinerant among his German countrymen led him out of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The assertion that Albright left the Methodist Episcopal Church because it would not ordain him as a minister is utterly groundless. Nor did he cause a schism from that church, as Dr. Dorchester, in his "Christianity in the United States" (p. 479) seems to indicate. He took no one with him. He never proselyted, nor in any way opposed that church in its operations. He had no quarrel with it. On the contrary, he was in full accord with its doctrines and general polity. He simply followed the divine call. The leaders of the Methodist Church did not, at that time, wish to engage in work among the German Pennsylvanians, believing that the German language would soon become extinct in this country. Albright could have found a congenial home in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but the Lord of the church called him out into a special field.

CHAPTER II.

ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION.

MR. AlbrighT'S converts were widely scattered and isolated. They found none near them of like mind or of similar religious experience. Albright was as yet alone in the work, and his visits were necessarily few and far between. His converts were thus thrown upon most meager spiritual resources. Despised and hated by the regular churches of the time, they were indeed a cause of much anxiety to the pious preacher who had led them to Christ. The conviction was forced upon him that if they were not to fall a prey to discouragement and the fruit of his labors be lost in the end, steps must be taken to introduce some kind of order, and to effect some sort of organization.

Accordingly, after much prayer, he ventured to establish several "classes." This was possible, however, in only a few cases, on account of the great distances between the homes of individual members. In Berks County, at the Colebrookdale Iron Works, a few lived closely enough together to be organized into a class. They were united into what was called Lieser's Class. Another, called Walter's Class, was formed near Quakertown, Bucks County, and a third, called Phillip's Class, in Northampton County. Class-leaders were at once elected, whose

1 R. Yeakel's "History of the Evangelical Association."