favor of the cause of Freedom. Once, indeed, he stood with a small minority of 22 against 147; but here his judgment and foresight were as fully as in the other cases justified in the future. It was on the question of a separation of the Southern Conferences from the Church, as to which the minority held that the General Conference had no authority to recognize in any way, much less provide for, a division. It is the opinion to which the Conference of 1848 gave its adherence, and which has since been undisputed doctrine in the Church.

Mr. SHAW's work during the session lay mostly in the Committee on Missions, at the head of which stood the venerable Dr. Nathan Bangs. Here he was associated with such men as John A. Collins, Abel Stevens, John M. Trimble, and others, of whom five afterwards became Bishops in the Church.

This year, 1844, he was pastor at Burlington, a beautiful little city, situated on the banks of the Delaware River. It was one of the oldest settlements in the State, having been founded by a colony of Friends from England. It was congenial soil for Methodism, and a society, early formed, had greatly prospered. Mr. SHAW was exceedingly acceptable. He He says of his work: (A) "In this

charge I followed a brother who had been successful in the conversion of sinners, and so it fell to my lot to feed the lambs. Though my congregations were large and attentive, and the meetings lively and interesting, yet I was not favored with the reviving influences which I witnessed at my former appointments." This was due, doubtless, to that law of periodicity which holds sway in spiritual, as in natural, things. "One soweth, and another reapeth," and after harvest the soil lies fallow for a time until again the plowshare upturns its fertility.

At the end of this year Mr. SHAW fully expected a continuance at Burlington; but the Bishop who presided at the Conference of 1845 desired him to serve as a Presiding Elder; and as he had once declined this office, he felt now constrained to accept. At the close of his term he was anxious for a return to pastoral work, particularly that he might be more with his family; but the Bishop of that year, 1849, assigned him to another district. So, then, his appointments for eight years were Camden and Trenton Districts.

1845-48,

CAMDEN DISTRICT,

1849-52,

TRENTON DISTRICT.

The former (B) "extended from Camden, on the North, to Cape Island, on the South, and from the Delaware, on the West, to the Atlantic, on the East, embracing twenty charges." The latter, having the same limits eastward and westward. reached northward from Camden to Trenton, and included over twenty charges.

His home in the first was at Salem; and in the second, at Pennington, and afterward at Flemington. His duties of oversight were multiform, requiring a quarterly visitation of each appointment, and relating to the minutest particulars of Church work. Thus he held upwards of eighty Quarterly Conferences in fifty-two weeks; with several sermons, the love-feast, and the administration of the Lord's Supper, at each, beside the official duties of president of these bodies, which have legislative, executive, and judicial functions under the General Laws of the Church, for each separate charge.

During this period of eight years he traveled between eighteen and twenty thousand miles in

his carriage, and preached over two thousand sermons. To this must be added his regular, routine official duties; the difficult and delicate business of acting with his colleagues as Bishop's Council, in the annual appointments of the preachers; and such extraordinary vocations as dedicating churches and conducting church trials. Happily, the former of these last named were many and the latter few, being but two, in both which he was official prosecutor. The accused in one instance was convicted and expelled, and in the other honorably acquitted, a consummation at which no one more rejoiced than the kind-hearted attorney for the Church.

In dedicating churches he is said to have been master workman, his sermons being happily adapted to such occasions, and his business capacity and peculiar tact in raising moneys usually accomplishing complete success.

It is noteworthy that during all this time he missed but one appointment, and this the more, that he drove from place to place. He was, like most of the early Methodist preachers, an excellent horseman, very fond of, and thoroughly master of, the noble creature that was his constant companion. He belonged to that body of men, the Methodist circuit-riders, who were veritably the cavalry

of the Church Militant, not merely as being riders, but as having the dash, nerve, and spirit of that arm of service, and as ranging and scouting on the outskirts and frontiers. His journal abounds in allusions to his successive steeds, those faithful though humble servants of the Gospel.

At the Conference of 1848, in Patterson, Mr. SHAW was again elected a delegate to the General Conference, which met in Pittsburg.

He served on the Committee on the Bible Society, in company with John Baer, Minor Raymond, Daniel Curry, and others.

He was also a member of the most important Committee on the State of the Church, which had, among other duties, that difficult one, of dealing with the question of the withdrawal of the Southern Conferences. Their decision, adopted almost without dissent by Conference, was, as we have already seen, a reversal of the action had four years before, and a complete approval of the position then taken by Mr. SHAW with the minority.

He seems to have been engaged also in the current business of the session, as his name appears now and again as presenting memorials, or as spokesman for his delegation.

It was soon after his return from Pittsburg that death again visited Mr. SHAW's household,