His blood and rightplea.' These were

the Lord Jesus Christ too. eousness I make my only the last words he spoke. Soon after, he became speechless, but by signs gave testimony to the last that God was with him. We might expatiate on the many virtues of this venerable servant of God-his deep and undissembled piety, his zeal, his usefulness-of which there is abundant evidence, but it would extend this notice to an unreasonable length. He leaves a wife, two sons, and several grandchildren to mourn his departure. It is not saying too much in praise of our departed brother, that there have lived but very few such men as Lewis Garrett, habitually pious, and 'holy in all manner of conversation and godliness.' How applicable to such a man and such a course the text selected for his funeral-sermon: 'I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.' Amen."

There are several errors in the foregoing adinirable memoir, which we note here for the truth of history:

1. Neither Barnabas McHenry nor James Haw

was on the Cumberland Circuit in 1787, but Benjamin Ogden was.

2. It was in Kentucky, and not in the Cumberland Circuit, where Mr. Garrett embraced religion.

3. This memoir states that Mr. Garrett located in 1805, and returned to the Conference in 1816, and was successively on the Stone's River, Dixon, Cumberland, and Duck River Circuits, and on the Jackson's Purchase Mission, Duck River, and Forked Deer Districts. This is all incorrect. It was Lewis Garrett, Jr., a nephew of Lewis Garrett, Sr., who filled the above-named appointments. Lewis Garrett, Sr., as we have seen, reëntered the Conference in 1824.

Williams Kavanaugh, the colleague of Mr. Garrett, was a promising man, but at an early period married, and retired from the itinerant work. He afterward joined the Protestant Episcopal Church. His family, however, adhered to the Methodists, and to this day his name is honored in the Church by his posterity. Bishop Kavanaugh, Dr. Benjamin T. Kavanaugh, the Rev. Williams B. Kavanaugh, and other younger members of the family, are in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The name is a household word in the Methodist Connection.

Jacob Lurton, whose name stands in connection with the Cumberland Circuit this year, was a laborious and successful minister of Christ. He

traveled the West Jersey Circuit, in Virginia, in Pennsylvania, in Maryland, and in the West. He witnessed a gracious revival on the Cumberland Circuit, which extended into Kentucky. His health, however, failed, and he retired at the end. of this year from the itinerant work. He resided for awhile in Kentucky, but afterward removed to Illinois, where he ended his days in peace.

Moses Speer was the colleague of Mr. Lurton on the Cumberland Circuit. He was a native of Maryland, but removed with his father to Kentucky while he was very young, and lived near to where the city of Louisville now stands. Here he commenced preaching. On the Cumberland Circuit he was very useful, and witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the people. During this year he was married to Miss Ewing, a lady of excellent family. He located and lived for many years in the vicinity of Nashville, where he labored as a local preacher. He brought up a large and respectable family. Two of his sons entered the ministry. The Rev. James G. H. Speer was admitted into the Tennessee Conference in 1822, and was appointed to the Lebanon Circuit; in 1823, to Knox Circuit; and in 1824, to Little River, in East Tennessee. This year the Conference was divided, and the Holston Conference set off. Mr. Speer fell into the Holston division, where he filled the Blountville Circuit

in 1825. Here his health failed, and he was placed on the superannuated list. He continued in this relation till 1833. Having married Miss O'Bryan, he removed to Robertson county, where he died in the faith. He left a widow (now Mrs. Gooch) and a small family of children, who are an honor to his name.

The Rev. Samuel W. Speer, D.D., now a member of the Louisville Conference, is also a son of the Rev. Moses Speer. It is a singular fact, that Moses Speer was the first Protestant minister who preached the gospel in Indiana, and that his son, Dr. Speer, is now, at the time of this writing, the first preacher of the South to visit the same State to establish a Southern Methodist Church therein.

Miss Mary Speer, a daughter of the Rev. Moses Speer, became the wife of the Rev. Greenberry Garrett, then a member of the Tennessee Conference. She was a noble Christian woman, and, years afterward, died in Christ. She sleeps in South Alabama. Mr. Speer, in his old age, reëntered the itinerant ranks, and labored in the bounds of the Red River Circuit, Arkansas Conference, in 1838, and in the Montgomery Circuit, Texas, in 1839. This year closed his earthly toil. He died in Christ, having passed his three-score years. and ten.

CHAPTER IX.

Decrease in the membership-The reasons why-Revolutionary War-Indian troubles-Civil history-State formed and admitted into the Union-Legislature - Colonel Weakley Samuel Weakley and family-Tobias Gibson -Benjamin Lakin-Ebenezer Conference-General fast and thanksgiving.

THERE was a decrease in most of the circuits this year (1795.) Indeed, the work seemed almost at a stand-still, if really the cause was not losing ground. This, however, is not to be wondered at, if the state of the country be borne in mind. It was not till this year that the Indian war was suspended-up to this date every thing seemed to be unfavorable, and the inhabitants labored under serious embarrassments. "Their frequent conflicts with the Indians, the War of the Revolution, and the exciting scenes through which the pioneers of Tennessee had passed during the formation at several periods of their civil government, had been accompanied with a necessary relaxation of morals. Religious instruction and worship were necessarily neglected, and the forms even of religion were most imperfectly